If there is one thing I would avoid the most in the world, it would be waiting. Seriously, I can whine all day long because of wasting several minutes to wait for someone or something, I could have use those minutes to do something else. But recently there are some interesting stories I got during my waiting for a person, in the hospital and in a car. Here they go:
1. It was another hours of waiting for my research's consultant. Sitting next to me was a lady whose nose was covered by cotton-aid. This was quite uncommon because most of the women consulting to that Oncology Clinic are breast cancer patients. I can't stand my curiosity and asked her whether she is going to see the doctor because of breast cancer. It turned out that this lady had a lump on her nose and it had been resected the last week. I had just studied about skin malignancy that morning (Malignant Melanoma and Basalioma), so I began to ask some questions relating to her skin lump. One thing surprised me was that this lady is a housewife, which means that she spends most of her days inside her house. While the only predilection for skin malignancy in my mind at that time was UV exposure. She said that she didn't use to wear any sun-screen lotion nor cosmetics when she is outside. But does a minimal exposure to sunlight could end to such skin cancer. I should learn further.
2. Several days later, in the same Oncology Clinic, waiting for the same research's consultant, a woman beside me had been waiting several minutes longer than me. I smiled her once previously, but after an hour of waiting for the same person, side by side, I started the conversation. She looked fine and I didn't notice anything wrong with her face. But after she said that she suddenly lose her right eye's visual after a series of chemotherapy, I noticed that her eye looked perfectly normal while the left one looked a bit retracted. Turned out that she had done a mastectomy a year ago, continued by a series of radiotherapy and chemotherapy. She had consulted an eye specialist doctor in a private hospital before but the examinations showed nothing wrong with her retina and all. I started to think whether it was the side effect of the chemical they used in chemotherapy or it was the tumor which had metastasized to her brain or eye. I literally googled about it soon after I arrived home but couldn't find the most possible and satisfactory explanations. I should learn more.
3. It was this morning, in a travel service when I was going to my hometown. The driver and I were waiting for the next passenger, he asked about med school etc. Then he told me about his 9-month old son who has been suffering cough for the last 4 days. His son also had a fever. A doctor had given him drug prescription. The driver showed me the prescription paper, and although I have just finished pharmacology exam, I still think that I couldn't diagnose and determine the drugs now. It was either under confidence, fear of giving the wrong drug advice, or simply because I realized my own lack of knowledge. I should have learned more, and I will.
The most important thing I've learned is I like the interaction with those people seeking for medical help. I like the heart-to-heart talk, the trust they put in me, so that they could share their health problem. Some even shared their financial problem. This is the privilege I'll have as a medical doctor in the future. I just wonder whether I would have an overly busy schedule with too much patients waiting, so that I would miss those essential talks. Those essential talks which I rarely find it on some senior doctors who examine patients in just 10 minutes. I wonder if being in their position is inevitable, or I am free to choose what kind of doctor I am going to be. I have those ideal goals, but I know being overly idealistic means being ready to be disappointed by the reality.
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